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Subscribers to chaos theory often refer to the butterfly effect when describing the potentially huge impacts that come from seemingly small variations in the status quo. The analogy suggests that the flapping of a distant butterfly’s wings could create a hurricane weeks later.

Now, I’m not saying I expect gale force winds to come out of the current debate on global tax reform. But it is a good time to take a step back to think about how many of the tax reforms currently being debated around the world could have an operational impact on multinational corporations.

As of our last tally, the United States, Japan, China and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which counts fourteen major countries around the world among its membership, have all introduced, or are said to be planning, corporate tax reform initiatives this year. Ranging in scope from top line tax rate overhauls to more elaborate, globally harmonized transfer pricing rules, the new proposals make one thing abundantly clear: tax professionals are about to enter a period of profound uncertainty about global tax.

Much of the press coverage of these issues focuses on the headline numbers, like a possible reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% in the U.S., for example. But what has been less publicized is the fact that, in the U.S., these changes are meant to be revenue neutral. To achieve that, we’re also likely see corporate tax deductions and breaks taken away, leaving the bottom line on the U.S. government’s tax cut more or less unscathed. If you read between the lines, that means that a tax rate reduction will come with a lot of other changes, creating a ripple effect through the entire tax code.

But the bigger issue for many big businesses – particularly multinationals – will not be whether the final tax rate is a few percentage points higher or lower. It will be the path they need to take to get there. The process of accommodating any of the changes we mentioned above will be laborious and complicated. Not to mention that any significant corporate tax rate change is going to have an impact on forecasting, planning and financial reporting, and could even change the value of tax assets.

These kinds of changes will also send ripple-effects throughout a corporate tax department. If, for example, the corporate tax rate in the U.S. were reduced to 25%, most people would expect a switch to flip overnight and, suddenly, the new tax rates would take effect. But it doesn't always work that way. Historically, tax rates haven’t just changed in a vacuum. A major change like the one being discussed is typically implemented over a period of time. There are not a lot of precedents to work with, so no one really knows exactly how that phase-in will occur. And even once that schedule comes out, the guidance on how to apply those changes within the corporate tax department could come quite a ways behind it.

There are many historical reference points for changes to the corporate tax code, but few have been as sweeping and as global as what we’re seeing right now. Some of the bigger issues we know our clients are already thinking about include:

The potential move in the U.S. to a territorial tax system.

The OECD’s plans for a coordinated, sweeping set of rules around base erosion, profit shifting and transfer pricing

The announcement of a reform is really just the first step.The lag-time between the passing of the law and the publication of the guidance from the IRS can be painful for tax professionals. It leaves them in a sort of limbo where they know they will have to make changes, but don’t know exactly what those changes will need to be. It’s anyone’s guess how long this could take, especially given the uncertainly on IRS functions and the recent government shutdown.

State and local governments will also need to accommodate the changes in their budgets as a trickledown effect of some of the provisions required to reach a revenue neutral change. We saw this happen not too long ago with new mandates for bonus depreciation, which resulted in some states following federal guidance, some rejecting the changes outright and others creating a hybrid approach. And at the end of all of this, corporate tax departments will bear the burden of sorting through all of the federal and state positions on any change to incorporate them into their workflows.

These changes, and other like them, will carry significant impacts and risk for both corporations and the government as we navigate this new territory and make our best assumptions as to how this will play out for both parties. Now, more than ever, tax professionals need to keep a close eye on regulatory changes, continue to communicate closely with their CFOs and work with their accounting firms to make sure they are ready to take action as changes get implemented.